The Pleasures and Perils of Professional Storytelling

Laura will be presenting her workshop

The Working Storyteller: How to Run a Storytelling Business

at Sharing the Fire 2020.

It took me four tries to launch a functional storytelling business. The first time I had no idea what I was doing and thought enthusiasm, skill, and talent would be enough. I was wrong. I quickly found myself back in a day job with storytelling on the side. The second time I actually had some idea of the business and administrative skills I would need. What I didn’t have was much external support or good boundaries around family members who thought that being self-employed meant I had plenty of time to help them with other things. Within a year I was back to full-time employment in a job that didn’t really suit. The third time I had the practical skills, the talent, the connections, the boundaries, and the support I needed. Everything went really well until my personal life collapsed and I could no longer work anywhere, let alone as a performing artist. The fourth time was the charm. As I pulled myself back, I planned well, worked hard, and began to develop a functional, sustainable, storytelling business that is now my livelihood.

I love being self-employed as a working artist. I love dedicating my life to an art that enriches the world, helps others find their voice, and gives me a platform to create meaningful change in many levels of society. At the same time, I am working harder than I ever have and at least 80% of that work has nothing to do with storytelling performance, teaching, coaching, or consulting. I am my own graphic designer, book keeper, booking agent, administrator, publicist, IT professional, chauffeur, travel agent, etc. The day-to-day work of it is sometimes as grinding and relentless as that ill-fitting day job was, only with less pay.

I wish I had known both how hard and how rewarding this storytelling life can be, when I first decided to leap. I wish I had known how vital it is to ask for help and to accept it without guilt. I wish I had known how important boundaries are and that I would need to schedule vacations for myself that had nothing to do with work, no matter how many lovely places I travel to as a professional storyteller. I wish I had known that it was important to have new hobbies now that storytelling was my source of income. I wish I had known that sometimes I need to take jobs I don’t want to, so I can pay the rent. I wish I had known so much.

Now that I do know all of this and keep learning more every day, I share what I know. I can be a teacher and mentor around the work of being a working artist. This is as rewarding as teaching and performing storytelling, because just as helping people find that their story changes lives, so too does helping people find their path to the right work. We thrive and build a better world when our work and our lives are rich with meaning.

About Laura: Laura Packer has been performing, teaching, coaching, writing, and promoting storytelling for almost 30 years. She is the author of From Audience to Zeal: The ABCs of Finding, Crafting, and Telling a Great Story and the creator of #storyseeds. www.laurapacker.com

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